Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence, and Security

Rosenberg (Ethel and Julius) Espionage Case

█ ADRIENNE WILMOTH LERNER

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were a couple accused in 1950 by the United
States government of operating a Soviet spy network and giving the Soviet
Union plans for the atomic bomb. During a time of tense scrutiny over
alleged communist infiltration of the American government, the trial of
the Rosenbergs became the center of a political storm over communist
influence in America. Their trial was one of the most controversial of the
twentieth century, ending with their execution.

Julius Rosenberg was a committed communist who had graduated from the City
College of New York in 1939 with a degree in electrical engineering. He
married Ethel Greenglass in the summer of that year. She was a headstrong
woman, active in organizing labor groups. Julius had opened a mechanic
shop with his brother-in-law, but the business soon began to fail, largely
due to lack of attention by Julius, who invested his time spying for the
Soviets. He began by stealing manuals for radar tubes and proximity fuses,
and by the late 1940s, had two apartments set up as microfilm
laboratories.

The arrest of the Rosenbergs was set in motion when the FBI arrested Klaus
Fuchs, a British scientist who gave atomic secrets to the Soviets while
working on the Manhattan Project. Fuchs's arrest and confession led
to the arrest of Harry Gold, a courier for Soviet spies. Gold in turn led
investigators to David Greenglass, a minor spy who confessed quickly.
Greenglass then accused his sister Ethel and brother-in-law Julius of
controlling his activities.

Julius immediately realized the implications of Harry Gold's arrest
and began to make arrangements to get out of the country, but the FBI
moved swiftly. Julius Rosenberg was arrested in July 1950.

Ethel Rosenberg was later arrested in August. Although Federal
investigators had little evidence against her, they hoped to use the
threat of prosecuting her as a lever to persuade Julius to confess. The
plan failed, and the couple was charged with conspiracy to commit
espionage. Their trial began on March 6, 1951.

From the beginning, the trial attracted national attention. The
prosecution decided to keep the scope of the trial as narrow as possible,
with establishing the Rosenbergs' guilt the main target, and
exposing their spy ring a lesser concern. Nonetheless, the trial was
punctuated by numerous arrests of spies associated with the Rosenbergs,
some appearing in court to testify against them.

Ethel Rosenberg and her husband Julius are separated by a wire screen
as they ride to separate jails in New York City in 1951 after their
conviction for delivering secrets, including vital atomic bomb data,
to the Soviet Union.

AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS

.

The defense tried to downplay the importance of the information the
prosecution claimed the Rosenbergs had stolen, but then turned around and
requested that all spectators and reporters be barred from the courtroom
when the information was discussed.

The Rosenbergs accused David Greenglass of turning on them because of
their failed business, but these efforts only elicited sympathy for a man
who had been forced to turn in a family member. Greenglass damaged the
Rosenbergs by testifying that Julius had arranged for him to give Harry
Gold the design of the atomic bomb used on Nagasaki (which differed
considerably from the Hiroshima bomb). When Gold himself testified, he
named Anatoli Yakovlev as his contact. This directly tied the Rosenbergs
to a known Soviet agent. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were found guilty on
several accounts of espionage and conspiracy. They were sentenced to
execution, a sentence usually reserved for cases of treason.

After months in prison, the Rosenbergs still maintained their innocence
and began to write poignant letters, which were widely published,
protesting their treatment. The case was followed closely in Europe, where
many felt the Rosenbergs were being persecuted because they were Jewish
(though Judge Kaufman was also Jewish). A movement began to protest the
"injustice" of the Rosenberg
trial. Passions both for and against the Rosenbergs grew so great that
they even threatened Franco-American relations, as the French were
particularly harsh in their condemnation of the trial as a sham.

In the months between the sentencing and execution, criticism of the trial
grew more strident, and major demonstrations were held. Nobel-prize winner
Jean-Paul Sartre called the case "a legal lynching which smears
with blood a whole nation." In spite of attempts at appeal and a
temporary stay issued by Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, Julius
and Ethel Rosenberg were executed on June 19, 1953, both refusing to
confess.

Years after the event, the case continues to stir debate. Although the
Rosenbergs were communists and engaged in espionage, they did not spy for
an enemy of the United States, as the sentence might indicate, but rather
for its wartime ally. Recent studies of the couple's activities
show that the evidence against them was over-whelming. The
declassification and release of Venona transcripts (a secret,
decades-long, general surveillance operation) further implicated the
Rosenbergs. Regardless of the evidence, the political and social upheaval
surrounding the trial, and its ultimate outcome, can only be understood
through the lens of heightened Cold War tensions and anti-Communist
hysteria.